FBI ties suspect to five bank robberies

Submitted photo##The FBI is offering a reward for information that leads to the arrest of this man, suspected of robbing five banks in the valley.

The FBI issued a wanted poster late Monday for a man suspected of robbing five mid-valley banks in recent weeks, two of them located in McMinnville.

The bureau is offering a $3,000 reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the perpetrator, described as a balding 35- to 50-year-old white male with a gray goatee and sunken cheeks.

Agents said the man, judged to weigh about 150 pounds, typically wears a baseball cap pulled down over a stocking cap. In the robbery staged Jan. 10 at the Chase Bank branch on Highway 99W in McMinnville, he donned a baseball cap emblazoned with the bureau’s familiar initials, they said.

In addition to the local Chase bank, the man is being sought in connection with Chase Bank robberies carried out Dec. 21 in Lake Oswego and Jan. 19 in West Salem, an OnPoint Community Credit Union robbery conducted Jan. 24 in McMinnville and a First Federal Savings & Loan heist perpetrated Feb. 3 in Newberg.

Anyone with potentially relevant information is asked to call the FBI’s Salem office at 503-362-6601, during normal business, or Portland office at 503-224-4181, any time of day or night. A copy of the poster can be found at bankrobbers.fbi.gov/robbers-container/2017-02-02.8865941169.

The local Chase Bank robbery was committed about 1:15 p.m. on a Tuesday.

The robber, wearing a black hooded coat, black FBI cap and jeans, gave the teller a note demanding money. He did not display a weapon.

Two nearby schools were briefly locked down, as officers scoured the Town Center Shopping Center and surrounding area for any sign of the robber.

The credit union heist followed two weeks later, also on a Tuesday. The robber entered about 5:20 p.m. and demanded money.

This time, he was wearing a black cap over a gray hooded jacket or sweatshirt. He was last seen on foot on Northeast McDonald Lane.

Photos from the Chase robbery were disseminated both by McMinnville police and the FBI. Photos from the OnPoint robbery have not been made public.